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Samsung bets big on ‘Human-Centred IoT’

June 22, 201610:46Stuart Corner

Samsung Electronics has unveiled plans to invest $US1.2b on R&D in the US over the next four years into what it calls ‘Human-Centred IoT’ and, jointly with Intel, has announced a ‘National IoT Strategy Dialogue’ for the US.

The Dialogue, to be hosted by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), will, Samsung said, “design a National IoT Strategy as a tool to inform policy makers on enabling the technology to deliver benefits for individuals, communities, innovators and the US economy.” It will “convene like-minded industry partners and organisations to collaboratively develop strategic recommendations for US policy makers on IoT.”

The move coincides with the new Department of Commerce IoT proceeding and the pending bicameral and bipartisan Developing Innovation and Growing the Internet of Things (DIGIT) Act – which would establish a working group of federal agency leaders to provide recommendations to Congress on how to plan for and encourage the proliferation of the IoT in the US – in consultation with industry.

The R&D initiative will be led by the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center, Samsung Global Innovation Center and Samsung Research America, part of Samsung’s US footprint of more than 15,000 employees across the country.

The move was announced by Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman and CEO Dr Oh-Hyun Kwon in a speech to a Samsung-hosted forum in Washington DC entitled Internet of Things: Transforming the Future.

Start talking and think different about IoT

According to Samsung’s press release, “Kwon called for his peers to ‘start talking and thinking differently about IoT,’ with a human-centred approach, embracing the life-changing possibilities of the technology and working together to bring these benefits to society at-large.”

“Today, IoT is changing individual lives – helping people to age in their own homes. But tomorrow, using IoT, we can give the same independence to millions of Americans,” Kwon said. “We can keep people out of hospitals and nursing homes. As our populations live longer, these benefits and cost savings for society cannot be ignored.”

He offered industry and policymakers two principles in addition to a ‘human-centred’ approach: to be open and collaborative. “If we want innovators everywhere to make use of IoT, we must make sure all tools are open to them. This means technologies that connect to each other, because we know that boundaries around technologies hold back innovation and scale,” he said.

He also warned that sector-specific regulations would inherently fragment the development of IoT, impeding devices and platforms from connecting to each other.